10 of the Best New Wave of British Heavy Metal Albums of All Time

The New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM) scene was legendary for bridging 70s rock and 80s metal – the relay runner who witnessed the gradual mutation of classic rock’s clean distortions into its off-shooting sub-genres, from glam rock to speed metal and, eventually, full-mud death metal.
Dominated by a comparatively small handful of bands, each backed by shockingly fleshed-out discographies (not looking at you, Iron Maiden), narrowing down the best NWOBHM albums has always been a challenge.
This is a scene scattered with hidden gems and landmine albums, its hit tracks and age-defying riffs like pinpointed explosions churning the scene into its present incarnation, and its shrapnel still as groove-cutting as in their mid-70s to 80s heyday.
Our list collects the 10 best NWOBHM albums, in no particular order, shedding the excess and unearthing the core elements that keep this genre compelling, no matter how many decades pass by.
1. Saxon – Denim and Leather (1981)
The fourth album from Yorkshire five-piece Saxon is a high-energy fix of old-school tones, with riffs aged like fine wine and a concept as relevant as ever to newcomers of the anti-mainstream scene. Circling lyrical themes of love and independence, recklessness, and sticking it to the man, Denim and Leather broke into the Top 10 on the UK album charts – Saxon’s only album to do so other than 1980’s Wheels of Steel.
Backed by tracks such as Princess of the Night and Fire in the Sky, Saxon tread the NWOBHM line carefully, infusing glam rock ‘n’ roll with slightly darker shades, gripping and excitable, like a rampage of feel-good energy.
2. Judas Priest – Screaming for Vengeance (1982)
Judas Priest’s discog is littered with hits, but it’s their ninth album – 1982’s Screaming for Vengeance – which truly takes the crown. Backed by two singles, Electric Eye and You Got Another Thing Coming (which hit #4 on the US Rock charts), Priest fans know it’s the album tracks which make this record one of the greatest NWOBHM releases of all time.
Riding On The Wind is a landmark song with ceaseless summer energy; Pain and Pleasure’s chorus exudes such a heavy metal character it almost sounds like a Bill Bailey parody, while (Take These) Chains implants a rare, atmospheric edge most NWOBHM craves desperately.
3. Diamond Head – Lightning To The Nations (1980)
Diamond Head’s debut record runs thick with rustic, galloping tones, each track covered in the scent of beer-drenched denim, yet crisp with melody, movement, and near-nonsensical solos. Despite failing to truly break the mainstream rock scene and claim any noticeable commercial success, Diamond Head’s music gleams like hidden treasure amongst the rubble of their sub-genre’s overplayed hits. This seven-track album doubled in length for its 2001 re-issue, pulling together some classic B-sides and other obscurities into the record’s final mix.
4. Iron Maiden – The Number Of The Beast (1982)
Acclaimed as forerunners of the NWOBHM scene, it’s impossible to pull only one of Iron Maiden’s classic records for our list, so we’re taking it back to basics. The Number of the Beast was the band’s first record with their now-synonymous singer Bruce Dickinson and their first to hit #1 on the UK album charts. Packed with all-time greatest hits such as Run to the Hills and Hallowed Be Thy Name, this Maiden album set a wild and powerful backdrop for their own discog to unravel, leaving in its wake a vast goldmine of inspiration for circling bands to feed on.
Featuring eight tracks on its original edition, this lightning-speed record is cemented in metal history; a foundation album for the NWOBHM scene, exploring and finessing each landmark trait of the genre.
5. Samson – Shock Tactics (1981)
It’s also impossible to mention Bruce Dickinson on a NWOBHM list without his obscure pre-Maiden project, Samson, coming into focus. Samson paled beneath the rock limelight, despite their 1981 record, Shock Tactics, harboring an identical frontman force to that which stamped Iron Maiden’s name in history.
But peering into the legend’s deeper cuts, Shock Tactics is crafted with warmth, power, and exceptional intrigue, Dickinson’s lyrics clawed with a host of themes from the destructive storms of Earth Mother to the predator-meets-prostitute tale of Bright Lights.
6. Venom – Welcome to Hell (1981)
Venom invites a Satanic streak onto our list, their sound far darker, bleaker, and grittier than their counterpart NWOBHM bands, and their lyrical themes far more disturbed. Venom made waves not just through the NWOBHM scene but through the vast spectrum of metal; their second album, Black Metal, coined the term of a whole new sub-genre whilst furnishing the metal scene’s addiction to pentagrams, baphomets, and occultism.
Venom’s debut album, Welcome To Hell, sees the fine entanglement of NWOBHM with the founding themes of black and thrash metal — hi-speed chord progressions illumined with riff-like essences, cut open by indistinguishable solos and matched with a well-practiced carelessness.
7. Angel Witch – Angel Witch (1980)
Angel Witch likewise lie closely on the precipice of thrash, yet root their sound firmly in the melodic haze of classic rock, as the NWOBHM scene dictates. This album is an adventure; its self-titled first track balances skin-shredding solos with prog rock organs, pub chanting, and refreshingly melodic toplines. Angel Witch is as brutal as it is singable, shockingly progressive, and explorative of the potential NWOBHM possesses beneath its tropes and tired expectations.
Kevin Heybourne, guitarist/vocalist and last-standing founding member of Angel Witch, shed light on the originality behind their debut record in a 2020 interview with Metal Hammer: “The whole NWOBHM thing didn’t exist when I wrote Angel Witch […] I thought, ‘Why is everyone writing love songs?’ I was into the fantasy thing and horror, and I just felt that was more of the way to go.”
8. Def Leppard – High ‘n’ Dry (1981)
Def Leppard’s late-80s releases shot them to the top of the charts; albums like Hysteria and Adrenalize came cloaked with hit singles such as Pour Some Sugar On Me and Animal, searing Def Leppard into music history as one of the greatest glam-tinged-rock bands of the decade.
1981’s High ‘n’ Dry takes the Leppard we know, sieving out their later pop transfixions and exposing their hard rock-meets-heavy metal soul. Their second record to reach release, High ‘n’ Dry formed a bedrock of the NWOBHM scene despite the band’s minor shift to more commercially viable strains of rock music. On this, Def Leppard’s frontman, Joe Elliot, reminisced to Classic Rock magazine: “35 years since the album was released – it doesn’t seem that long because our career is constantly evolving […] When you look back at it now, there are bits of it that hit and bits of it that missed. But generally speaking, as the second album, it was the start of where we were going to go.”
9. Raven – All For One (1983)
Raven mixes a healthy dose of mania into their heavy metal roots, their 1983 album, All For One, harboring essences of early Metallica yet monumental in its own right. This record is true heavy metal, stirred with virtuosic vocals, bludgeoning riffs, and sun-bright guitar solos.
But despite being overpowered by the commercial force of Maiden, Megadeth, Metallica, and the likes, Raven’s NWOBHM records are credited for sparking the Big Bang of thrash metal in the early-mid 80s — a founding band of the sub-genre sadly diminished beneath the glory of its US heroes.
10. Motörhead – Ace of Spades (1980)
Closing our list, one of the most renowned NWOBHM bands of all time who walked the precipice between hard rock and the innumerable incarnations of heavy metal — Motörhead’s 1980 record, Ace Of Spades, was an instant classic, hitting #4 on the UK album charts at the time of its release.
44 years on, Motörhead retains each shred of notoriety and prestige as speed metal pioneers, their undoubted greatest album pumped with warm unsoured grit, driven by the wildest streaks of amphetamine-infused rock ‘n’ roll.